Ms. Ivy Maisela, Senior Professional Officer, Water and Sanitation Department of Cape Town elaborated on the drought risk that the city faced: “The city adopted several interventions to reduce water losses and scale up water demand management. There was collaboration as residents worked together with the city administration to avoid getting to Day Zero. In effect, the City of Cape Town was recognized for saving water through water demand management without going to extreme interventions.” She added that moving forward, a water strategy has been developed, which focuses on access to safe water and sanitation services, regulation and policy, other water sources and working towards sustaining the future of water.

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With stringent Covid-19 SOPs that hindered communication and movement, the city of Dhaka battled a heatwave that often devastates the social-economic lives of city-dwellers, especially the vulnerable communities. Just how did anticipatory action achieve considerable success for disaster response agencies? Mr. Sheikh Khairul Rahaman at German Red Cross in Dhaka, Bangladesh says: “Raising awareness among the population and coordinating with other stakeholders helped us manage the adverse effects of the heatwave in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

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